[citation needed] The term draws upon the concept of the stack in programming and by the layered architecture of the Internet Protocol,[3] but provides a model at a planetary scale.
Gabriele de Seta has proposed three additional layers that are needed to understand what he calls "the Chinese stack", which is not delimited to the borders of China but is entwined with planetary networks.
[14] This builds on Michel Foucault's theories of governmentality and power,[14] and Bratton's book has been described as possible to read as "a Foucaudian toolkit that lifts out the useful parts".
[5] Although Bratton's book has been criticised as overly long and complex,[12] the term the stack is now commonly used in scholarship on the internet.
In his critical essay "Stacktivism" (a reference to the pejorative term slacktivism) Geert Lovink describes the book as a "media theory classic" that is "inspiring to disagree with."